News Article

With American drug use levels essentially the same as — and levels of drug-related violence either the same as or lower than — those in countries like the Netherlands with liberal drug laws, public support for the War on Drugs appears to be faltering. This was most recently evidenced in the victory of major drug decriminalization initiatives in Colorado and Washington. Some misguided commentators go so far as to say the Drug War is “a failure.” Here, to set the record straight, are fifteen ways in which it is a resounding success.

In a somewhat surprising 9th Circuit ruling (en banc, or in front of the entire set of judges), the court ruled that the 4th Amendment does apply at the border, that agents do need to recognize there's an expectation of privacy, and cannot do a search without reason.

Last week, Casey Fountain’s third grade son had a birthday party at school. His wife whipped up 30 cupcakes for the boy’s classmates. She topped the treats with plastic army guys. “And shortly after my wife delivered the cupcakes to the school she got a phone call from his teacher that said that the army men had to be removed, because they had guns.” Fountain says the principal called him personally and told him that dressing the cupcakes with soldiers was insensitive considering recent gun related tragedies, referring to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut.

“Police officer perjury in court to justify illegal dope searches is commonplace. One of the dirty little not-so-secret secrets of the criminal justice system is undercover narcotics officers intentionally lying under oath. It is a perversion of the American justice system that strikes directly at the rule of law. Yet it is the routine way of doing business in courtrooms everywhere in America.”

In case you hadn't seen, Erowid is accepting donations with Bitcoin. I haven't heard it mentioned recently (that I remember), but it used to be a favorite website on FTL. From the site: "Erowid is a member-supported organization providing access to reliable, non-judgmental information about psychoactive plants, chemicals, and related issues. We work with academic, medical, and experiential experts to develop and publish new resources, as well as to improve and increase access to already existing resources.

Garland Cop Patrick Tuter killed suspect Michael Allen, 25, after a high-speed chase. During the fray Tuter managed to squeeze off some 41 rounds from his service weapon, claiming that he felt that his life was in danger. The Garland PD was satisfied with this explanation and were willing to let the matter rest. But then Allen’s family, began asking questions. These questions brought the footage filmed by Tuter’s dashboard camera to light, footage that strongly contradict Tuter’s narrative of events.

A Bitcoin transaction services company says that hackers broke into one of its brokerage accounts last week, nabbing more than $12,000 worth of the digital currency. That attack knocked Bitinstant offline over the weekend. The company says that while it lost Bitcoins, no customers were affected by the hack.The criminals were able to take control of Bitinstant’s internet domains by convincing its domain registrar, Site5, to hand over control of the company’s Domain Name Service.

87-year-old Lorraine Bayless collapsed at Glenwood Gardens senior living facility in Bakersfield, California. A nurse named Colleen called 911 and was instructed by the dispatcher, Tracey Halvorson, to perform CPR to save the woman’s life, but Colleen replied that it was against their policy and she couldn’t do it, so she watched Lorraine die.

Audio of the 911 call has been released which is chilling to the bone, and mainstream coverage of the story is almost as terrifying.

DWI = 2 years in Solitary Confinement. Man was pulled over in New Mexico and arrested for DWI. While at the station being entered in to the system the police noticed that he was mentally unstable. So instead of calling in a dr they throw him in solitary confinement which is where he stayed for the next 22 months.

Bitcoin sounds like something from science fiction: A purely digital currency, created by an anonymous hacker, that operates outside the world's traditional banking systems. The four-year-old currency is very real, though, and it's trading an all-time high, tripling in value in the last two months alone. One bitcoin is was worth about $40 U.S. dollars on Tuesday, and surged on Wednesday to nearly $49. That's up from around $13 in January, and 5 cents in 2010, according to Mt. Gox, the bitcoin market's main exchange.